Attorney and author Anthony Franze certainly has good timing. Justice Antonin Scalia passed away in February, and now the Senate gears up for a fight over whether to confirm President Obama’s nominee, Chief Judge Merrick Garland. And two days ago, Franze released his new novel The Advocate’s Daughter, a murder mystery set against the backdrop of a fictional Supreme Court vacancy. The novel is strong when it focuses on being a family drama, but falters when it strays too far into being a political thriller.
The Advocate’s Daughter centers around Sean Serrat, who, as the novel opens, is involved in a murder of a storekeeper near a military base in Japan. Sean’s high-ranking father is able to sweep the murder under the rug, and Sean moves on with his life, though the events in Japan continue to nag at him. Fast forward many years, and Sean is a heralded law firm partner who is a former member of the Solicitor General’s office and is on the shortlist – albeit not the favorite – to be selected to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. In addition to being a prominent D.C. attorney, Sean has a seemingly perfect life, with a wife and three children. However, that life is turned upside down when his daughter Abby, a law student at Georgetown, goes missing and is later found murdered at the Supreme Court library. Abby’s boyfriend Malik is arrested for the murder, but Sean believes that her death might be connected to his time in Japan, the possibility of him being elevated to the Court, or both. The loss devastates the Serrat family but has the unanticipated consequence that Sean’s chances of being elevated to the Supreme Court are increased.
Despite the Beltway intrigue that permeates throughout, The Advocate’s Daughter is at its core a drama. The strongest aspects of the book are Franze’s depiction of a family torn asunder by the death of a child. Franze describes how Sean’s once-lively wife becomes a shell of her former self, unable to cope. Perhaps even sadder is the fact that Sean’s younger sons Ryan and Jack are too young to properly understand and process the loss that the family has suffered. Franze also conveys the ways that the Serrat family behaves differently “after” but, beginning a few weeks after Abby’s death, Sean starts to notice his family acting in certain ways that they would have done “before.” Further, Franze includes small but powerful touches about Abby such as the fact that while on family vacations, Sean and Abby – by themselves – would walk to the beach in the early morning and watch the sunrise.
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Anthony Franze (author photo by Kristina Sherk)
Franze also succeeds in depicting the legal aspects of the novel. Franze is an appellate attorney at Arnold & Porter and frequent Supreme Court commentator, and his knowledge of the high court is apparent. Many of the novel’s scenes take place in and around buildings such as the Supreme Court library, which Franze describes in detail, giving the book a real sense of place. Moreover, Franze peppers the novel with historical tidbits about the Court that will interest lawyers and non-lawyers alike, such as Justice McReynolds’s bigotry or Chief Justice Roberts’s flubbed oath when President Obama took office. (My only qualm with this aspect of the novel is that it seems to be set in some weird alternate universe where President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts exist but neither is still in office — if this novel is actually supposed to be set in the future, I wish Franze had thrown in some fun futuristic facts, like the plot of the inevitable Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2: Electric Boogaloo.)
The novel also deals with legal issues ripped from the front pages. For example, one subplot revolves whether a party can subpoena Google for Gmail records. While obviously not completely analogous to the current kerfuffle between the U.S. Justice Department and Apple, those interested in privacy law will appreciate Franze’s depiction of this hot-button issue.
Despite being a strong family and legal drama, the novel is somewhat weaker when it attempts to be a thriller. Some of the things that happen to Sean seem to be ripped out of a bad John Grisham novel, such as being constantly followed or being confronted by a man on the subway who tells him “I know” (what he did last summer?). The senator who is competing with Sean to be nominated to the Supreme Court is a cartoonish, one-dimensional villain. I also found it difficult to believe that Sean essentially takes the entire murder investigation into his own hands, including risking Ryan’s life so that Sean can confront a drug dealer who may have some connection to Abby’s disappearance.
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The Advocate’s Daughter is thus an entertaining read with a few problems. But more importantly, if Franze is so good as predicting the future, I hope his next book is about a columnist for a popular legal website who gets plucked from obscurity to become one of the writers of Suits, thus turning that show into a model of realism.
(Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book.)
The Advocate’s Daughter [Amazon (affiliate link)]
Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at [email protected]. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.